ternoster Row got its name from the fact that stationers and
writers had shops there, who sold, among other things, copies of the
Lord's Prayer. It had an Amen Corner, and Creed Lane is also near.
Afterwards mercers and lacemen invited customers to shops in the Row,
and finally it became famous for books and magazines.

Chancery Lane and Fetter Lane still keep the old names they had when
their appearance was not that of streets or business thoroughfares, but
quiet lanes between Holborn and Fleet Street, dotted with private
houses. Fetter Lane had nothing to do with fetters or prisoners; it was
so called because 'fewters,' or idle persons, were often found lurking
amongst the back gardens. One of the short turnings out of this lane had
the odd name of Three Leg Alley; nobody seems to know why. It is
supposed that Gracechurch Street is a reminder of a church in the
locality, St. Benet's, Grasschurch, thus called because near the church
was a herb-market, where wild or garden plants were sold. Occasionally
the name is found in books written by chance as Gracious Street. At
first the Gresham Street of our day was called Cateaton Street, but an
old writer about London states that this was also shortened to 'Catte.'
There was a surname Catte or Katt, which might have belonged to a person
who built houses along the street. Hog Lane, Spitalfields, we are told,
was visited now and then by the porkers that were allowed to range in
the fields and obtain what food they could. Doubtless they strolled up
the lane on the chance of getting fragments from the kitchens of
citizens. Was Duck Lane, Smithfield, damp enough to be attractive to
ducks? It may once have been, but later it was known as Duke Street.

Many places in the city were named from eatables or other articles that
were sold in them. This was the case with Pudding Lane and Pie Corner;
Milk Street, too, is supposed to have been a milk market, but Honey Lane
was not a depot for honey, nor remarkable for its sweetness. The
historian Stow says that it was both narrow and dark, needing much
sweeping to keep it clean. The Poultry was a market for fowls, and
Scalding Alley, close by, had houses in which people scalded poultry and
prepared them for sale. An old name given to Grocers' Alley was
Coney-slope Alley, for it had a market where coneys or rabbits could be
bought. In Rood Lane formerly stood the Church of St. Margaret Pattens,
beside which the women offered pattens to by-pa